Outside of his college obligations, Arnall has been busy building his own business along with his partner, Owen Price who is also at York College. "It was Owen who really got me into sound and lighting in the first place. We started out DJ-ing about four years ago but with very minimal equipment and certainly nothing of quality. Since then we have gradually been growing as a company doing bigger and higher profile events in our area and been able to invest in better equipment.
"When it came to investing in a console, the dot2 was the obvious choice for both of us. Neither of us had used an MA before but I had done all the programming at the NRM competition and really enjoyed the experience. However, everything was done under a very pressured time frame so I went down to Ambersphere for a training session with Thor André to really explore the functionality of the desk."
It proved a fruitful trip as Arnall decided to purchase a dot2 Core for his company R&O Sound & Lighting which is based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire as he explains, "Owen and I still have another year at college and there's no doubt that having a dot2 of our own will be a massive help to us there but mainly it fits in with the range of events we are now doing with the business. We do many different type of shows from simply busking a show manually to doing a very structured heavily cued theatrical event. The dot2's versatility means it is equal to any task we set it."
Arnall and Price first used the console for a pantomime which consisted of many moving lights and LED fixtures and then went straight on to a festival which asked for a completely different type of control. The dot2 proved more than up to the tasks.
In order to achieve the best possible deal, the purchase was arranged through R&M Productions of Stokesley, North Yorkshire. MD Robbie Baxter elaborates, "Robert contacted us after Ambersphere had suggested that making the purchase through us would be to his advantage. We then dealt with Thor to complete the arrangements; as always, he was great to deal with and made the whole process simplicity itself. Robert and Owen got a good price on the dot2 and we shipped directly to them across the North York Moors to Scarborough!"
(Jim Evans)
